Saturday, February 15, 2014

My first Kitbash. concept ideas, and beginning some mods.

So I'm entering a contest in the Facebook group: It's a gundaaaaaam!! for creating your own custom build fighters unit. the contest spans over a couple of months. and it seemed like an interesting opportunity to try some new things. so here I decided I'd go ahead and plan out a kit bash. initially my concept was to make a smaller more agile unit, and apply a number of blades, but i felt that would be disadvantageous in actual combat, being limited to just close range. so this will be a mid to long range, space capable mobile suit, with beam sabers for last minute close range combat of course. but the idea is to keep combat at a distance. next I had tried to decide the look i wanted to go for. I have always been a fan of exaggerated proportions, and really lean lanky limbs.

hit the bump for some breakdown and a few plans i plan to execute here.

initally the first design that jumped out at me was the age-2 normal.

I just did a quick snap of this guy, the legs felt really cheap and boring, there's not very much in the way of detail, and at the same time, the shapes and overall design go in too many odd directions, and don't feel very appealing to me. so the big draw for me here is the chest/waist. I might use the shoulder binders depending on how well they look once mounting is complete. we'll see. I might also use the front skirts, as I like the length.

Next for legs and arms, I was originally going to bash the parts from the zeta with the rezel. but i decided to just use rezel parts for both. the old HG zeta is pretty dated, and the parts are kind of plain. and don't look too great, plus the mechanisms for both are entirely different. the engineering advancements show from one to the next. so the arms/legs/shoulders are what will be used from the rezel

the rezel was a hefty build, lots of really cool parts, the cannons and backpack throw the weight a little, but the legs hold the weight pretty well, you just might have to maneuver the cannons just a bit to get everything standing properly.

Finally the zeta. this kit is OLD. and it really hasn't aged well. and another fun tidbit, is this build went as smooth as my RG Zeta. if anybody remembers that fiasco. it's not a bad kit by any standard though. the feet are a bit wobbly because of the transformation, but it otherwise looks good for what it is. Initially the legs and forearms were going to be used from this, but they look plain compared to the other parts i'm going to be using, so I'll probably only be using the shield from this. and i'm definitely using the face (see below) paired with the helmet from the rezel. and i'm going to use the red crest from the v-fin on the head.

NOW. that i've given long winded explanations of what i'm doing. I began modding the build. starting one part at a time. i'm going to try to document this build as best as I can to give people an idea as to what i'm doing, and so I can keep track, of what i'm doing that works for me and what doesn't.

the first order of business here is the head. I thought about starting with the feet, but there's not as much going on yet. so. First I took the head for the zeta and the rezel apart, I cut the plastic away from the rezel to get the connector to the neck , and put the rest aside. then I took the zeta head, and i trimmed the excess off the top and back of the head, and a little from the sides. it's a snug fit, but with some glue and a little sanding it'll fit better. I'm really happy with how smoothly this went though, to be honest, i expected a few speedbumps. although I did hit one minor bump with the neck...

I cut the ball joint from the top of the neck, and glued a small piece of pla-plate to it, and superglued the ball back in place. unfortunately it's not incredibly stable, so I'll probably have to run a rod through it, but the extended neck makes the head not sink so far into the chest of the age-2. which is good. next i trimmed a tiny bit of plastic from the bottom of the v-fin from the bandai blade options parts pack, and glued it to the red crest. now i just need to trim the extra plastic off the forehead of the helmet, and it'll be ready. I'm gonna finish tweaking it and i'll have some final snapped photos up by next post hopefully. :)

next time we'll be looking at the torso, which as a whole will remain as it is. but we'll make a few smaller changes, as well as changes for functionality.